Redhawks use solid work rate to defeat MMU (10/22/09)

Boys soccer team closing in on top playoff seed

Oct. 22, 2009

By Mal Boright

Observer correspondent

With the Division 1 primo playoff seed in their sights, coach T.J. Mead and his 12-1 Champlain Valley Union High boys soccer team close out the regular season on Saturday with a bus ride to Newport and an 11 a.m. meeting with 4-8-1 North Country Union High.

The Redhawks looked like a top seed on Tuesday with a sharp, 3-0 home victory over 5-6-1 Mount Mansfield Union and its acrobatic net minder, Conor Leland.

Leland turned aside 11 CVU shots, including a penalty kick in an athletic exhibition in the Cougars’ cage.

CVU prevailed, in the words of Mead, because of a “solid work rate, moving the ball around and getting the 50-50 balls, especially in the second half.”

The Redhawks held a substantial advantage in territorial play and goalie John Milbank had four stops in chalking up CVU’s eighth shutout of the campaign.

Senior co-captain Chris Beaton, a solid defender, notched the victors’ initial goal with 10 minutes gone in the first half, knocking the ball past Leland from out of a crowd in front of the net. It was Beaton’s first score of the year.

With 9:23 left in the half, Mark Clayton took a set-up from Chris Sulva, got a one-on-one situation with Leland and unleashed a 20-foot slam for a 2-0 lead and his 16th tally.

Zach Blanchard notched CVU’s second half goal with 11:04 remaining, a point-blank shot after a pass from Nick Hart. It was Blanchard’s fourth goal.

One of Leland’s primary victims was midfielder Kyle Logan, whom the MMU goalie robbed on a couple of occasions. Logan just missed hitting corners on two other shots.